Delegate from Gloucester sponsors bill to decriminalize marijuana

Del. Harvey B. Morgan, the Republican who represents Virginia's 98th district, is sponsoring a bill in the General Assembly to decriminalize simple possession of marijuana.

Morgan - whose district includes Gloucester, Mathews, Middlesex, Essex and parts of King William and King and Queen - is the chief patron of House Bill 1134, which does not legalize marijuana, but it would reduce simple possession from a criminal misdemeanor to a civil infraction. The punishment would drop from a 30-day prison sentence to a monetary fine.

The bill also raises the quanity of marijuana necessary to distinguish between personal use and intent to distribute and it removes the mandatory two- and five-year sentences for distribution.